


Spectral Vagrancy

by Sniperette



Series: Modern Hauntings [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (yet), Ghosts but not really, Keith centric but from other people's eyes mostly?, M/M, Magic War, Minor Character Death, Paranormal!AU, Pidge has everchanging pronouns, Rating May Change, actually quite a few minor character deaths but they're not the focus, let them rest, tagging is hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2019-01-04 09:33:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12166230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sniperette/pseuds/Sniperette
Summary: Here's a good piece of bad advice- if you want to survive a horror movie scenario, then bring the local walking-talking ouija board with you.Even if he turns out to be utterly useless against murderous poltergeists, Lance thinks that it wouldn't be too unreasonable to use Keith as a human shield. This mess was his fault, after all.





	1. Superstition Ain't The Way

**Author's Note:**

> “Technicalities, Hunk,” Lance sighed in mild annoyance tinged with amusement. “If I was the one trapped in a hospital room after going missing for a year, going through quote-unquote ‘who-knows-what’,” he paused for emphasis, “I’d be pretty damn grateful that someone was willing to bust me outta there and listen to MY side of the story.”
> 
> “That’s illegal, Lance.”
> 
> “Illegal, but fun, Pidge.“

Lance didn’t really consider himself to be a gossip, but this juicy piece of info was just  _too_  good to pass up.

Hunk yelped as he was grabbed by the handle on his backpack and yanked into an empty art classroom, only to be hushed by a paranoid Lance. He zipped an imaginary seal over his lips and relaxed against a nearby desk, waiting for his classmate to give the all clear to talk. After a few minutes of uncharacteristic silence from the boy, Lance turned around to spare a glance at the clock, huffing under his breath.

“Where the hell is Pidge? I know for a fact that he got my message- but if  _I_  was the one late to a meet, then-“

Lance cut the end of his sentence off abruptly as the door to the classroom swung open and a short, freckled kid flicked the light switch on. The corridor behind him was silent and empty, a sign that they would all be in trouble if they didn’t leave for their next class soon. The final member of their trio sighed as they slumped into a chair, letting their bag drop to the floor beside them.

“What are you dragging us out of class for this time, Lance?”

Lance pulled another chair over to the desk, opting to sit on it with the back of the chair pressed to his chest. There was a wild grin on his face and a sparkle in his eye that told them that they were in for something exciting. He gestured for them to lean closer, and unlocked his phone to show them the group chat that he had left open on the screen.

“Have you heard? Apparently, they found that missing guy, Takashi Shirogane! He was yelling about ghosts and some other weird crap about portals- or so Ginger says, but she wasn’t actually  _there_  at the time.”

He quickly plays a short video, showing the aforementioned man screaming at the people trying to calm and restrain him that there were terrible creatures chasing after him. Hunk felt kind of sorry for the guy; something really horrible must have happened to him in those woods, even though he didn’t believe that monsters and ghosts that he raved about were the cause of his suffering. Maybe there was a serial killer in town that they didn’t know about? He’d watched tons of documentaries about that when he was bored and morbidly curious, and the most efficient murderers were scarily good at hiding amongst normal, everyday people. But why would they keep Shirogane alive for a whole year? That wasn’t really a sign of a very good serial killer, but Hunk decided that he didn’t really want to grade potential serial killers on their hypothetical methods right about now.

“What happened to him? Like, before he was found and after they escorted him away?”

Lance clicked his tongue in thought, rapidly typing a message to the group chat. Barely half a minute later, his phone pinged with a reply.

“Ginger says she doesn’t know… she’s just sharing what her friend Jeff sent her. Rocky says that they’re probably taking him to get checked out by the hospital- and that it’s probably more for his own safety than for his health, even though I’m pretty sure that Shirogane’s down one arm from the last time we saw him.”

Pidge grabbed the phone from him despite Lance’s protests, his eyebrows furrowing in concentration as he played the video again. Hunk and Lance peered at the screen over his shoulder, curious to see what had captured his interest in particular. He paused the video a couple of times; the first time on a slightly blurry close up of Shirogane’s face; second on a frame showing him grasping onto an older man’s arm with his left hand, while his right arm ended in a bruised and scarred stub above where his elbow used to be; and lastly on a shot of a group of paramedics with the name of the local hospital emblazoned across the side of their ambulance.

“I see you’re already planning a jail break, huh?” Lance smugly leaned into Pidge’s space, grabbing his phone back. Pidge hummed, but didn’t respond.

“Wouldn’t that technically be a ‘Hospital break’? It’s not like they’re actually locking him up or anything,” Hunk questioned, scratching his cheek. “And why are we going to kidnap him from hospital? The poor guy’s been through who-knows-what, and we’re practically strangers to him. I’m sure he’s not gonna remember a group of students that he didn’t even mentor while he was still here.”

“Technicalities, Hunk,” Lance sighed in mild annoyance tinged with amusement. “If I was the one trapped in a hospital room after going missing for a year, going through quote-unquote  _‘who-knows-what’_ ,” he paused for emphasis, “I’d be pretty damn grateful that someone was willing to bust me outta there and listen to MY side of the story.”

“That’s illegal, Lance.”

“Illegal, but  _fun_ , Pidge.”

Pidge scowled at the taller boy, hoisting his bag over his shoulder. He plucked a pen from the teacher’s desk and a post-it, scribbling down a time and an address before sticking it to Lance’s face with a slap. Hunk forced himself not to snicker at how Pidge strained on the tips of his toes to reach anywhere near Lance’s chin, and knew he made the right choice when Pidge calmly handed him a duplicate of the first post-it note.

“We should meet after school lets out for the day to discuss this further. We will not,” he shot a scathing look at Lance, “do anything incredibly illegal, but we will try to figure out a way to talk to Mr Shirogane without getting into trouble with the law. There’s something weird about all of this.”

Lance scrunched his nose up at the note, his face slowly brightening when he finally realised what Pidge had implied.

“So, ‘nothing incredibly illegal’ means ‘marginally legal but probably frowned upon’ in Pidge-speak, right?”

The door slammed closed. Lance slowly turned to Hunk, his grin nearly splitting his face in two.

“Technicalities, Hunk.  _Technicalities_!”

* * *

* * *

 

The three of them met at a small café in one of the quieter parts of town. Lance had sprinted home to change, and found the quaint little shop with little difficulty. He waited at an outdoor table, flipping through a menu until he had practically memorised every order available. He was about to move on the drinks menu, when Pidge and Hunk finally showed up at the other side of the street.

Getting down to business immediately, He shoved the other two chairs out with his feet and pulled a small notebook and pen out of his jacket pocket. Lance was so excited to share the hastily scribbled down plans in the small pad of paper that he almost missed the glum look on Pidge’s face.

Almost.

(Hunk on the other hand, looked somewhat relieved, and Lance started to feel suspicious.)

“Well, looks like we’re not getting a chance to talk to Mr Shirogane after all,” Pidge grumbled as he slouched in his seat. Lance felt his mood plummet into his stomach.

“Wait, what? Why? What’d I miss?”

Hunk cracked his fingers nervously, staring past the other two students at the waitress approaching their table. They dropped the conversation for a few minutes while they ordered their drinks and snacks; once the waitress was out of earshot, Hunk leaned over the table to speak in a hushed voice.

“Someone beat us to it. Pidge was keeping an eye on the police radio transmissions- don’t ask, he just growled at me when I did- and apparently they’re saying that someone broke into the hospital, tossed Shirogane over his shoulder, and marched out. I think it might be whoever kidnapped him in the first place, grabbing him before he gives anything away to the police about his captor. Also, he has a knife. Like a really sharp one. Maybe we should just leave the whole rescue operation to the police, guys.”

Before Lance could respond, the waitress returned to serve them their drinks, pausing to ask if they required anything else. When the trio shook their heads, she told them that she would be back with their food in a few moments. Once they were finally alone, Pidge cut off any complaints that Lance was going to make with a finger against his lips.

“There’s more to it than that, though. I don’t think that the wannabe kidnapper is as dangerous as Hunk makes him sound- he was described as being pretty young, a bit on the short side and lean in stature, and he was struggling to carry Mr Shirogane out. The knife wasn’t used to threaten anyone, just to free him from the hospital bed-“

“ _They strapped him down?!_ ”

“-and the guy seemed pretty damn protective more than anything. I wrote down the description they gave in more detail here though.”

Pidge paused to fish out a scrap piece of lined paper from his rucksack- did he seriously carry that everywhere with him?- and shoved it into Lance’s hands in a rush before the waitress came back again to serve them their food. Lance absentmindedly thanked her as his eyes scanned over Pidge’s messy scrawled out notes under the table. His eyes widened further the more that he read, and certain key words stuck out to him like a turd in a fruit bowl.

“Black mullet? I’m pretty damn sure I know who Mr. _Steal-Your-Thunder-and-Your-Man_ is.” Lance felt his face screw up in a bitter scowl as he tossed the piece of paper back at Pidge. Hunk looked between the paper scrap and his best friend’s face, clearly impressed.

“Seriously? You figured it out from a vague description like that?”

Pidge squinted at him through his glasses, curiosity piqued by the distaste in Lance’s face. Lance doodled a small picture in his notepad, and took great care in adding the finer details- like a pair of devil horns and a small tongue sticking out in childishness- before scribbling a name beside his finished masterpiece. Presenting the drawing with a flourish to the other two students, he leaned back in his chair and waited for their compliments about his artistic abilities.

“Wait, you think it’s Keith Kogane? Seriously?”

“That’s meant to be Keith? It looks nothing like him!”

“I just read the name Hunk, the picture is irrelevant.”

That statement earned Pidge a glare from Lance. “Rude! The picture is incredibly relevant, Pidge!”

Pidge squinted at the drawing again, raising his glasses, then lowering them, then raising them again. Letting them drop down onto his nose, he handed the notepad back to a frustrated Lance.

“I still don’t see it,” Pidge said slowly, not wanting to irritate Lance much more about his lack of drawing skills, or his irrational claims. “Why do you think it’s Keith? You can’t blame him for literally every weird thing that happens around here.”

Lance scowled and chose to ignore Pidge, instead grabbing his wallet to go pay for their food at the till. It gave him an opportunity to cool off a little, so that when he returned to his friends waiting anxiously outside for him, he shot them an apologetic grin for overreacting. The trio walked aimlessly in silence  for a while, until they finally stopped at the outskirts of town. Hunk looked at the distant forest uneasily, a little bit worried about why Lance had chosen to stop here of all places.

“I know that I exaggerated a little about Keith’s involvement in every unfortunate event in this town,” Lance paused, trying to choose his next words carefully, “but you gotta admit that an awful lot of people have either disappeared or died around here since he came to town- and in most of those cases, he’s the common denominator.”

Silence fell upon them as the night crept through the sky, and Pidge and Hunk found that they couldn’t really argue with Lance’s statement.

“So, how about we go ask him some questions?”


	2. Fox on the Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They were going to die.
> 
> Cold, soaking wet and muddy as hell, while tripping over tree roots and their own feet alike. Hunk had always thought that he would live a peaceful life, surrounded by nameless faces in an obscure and lonely town. As dull as that sounded, he much preferred that option to the slippery slope to a sudden death while lost in the woods.

They were going to  _die_.

Cold, soaking wet and muddy as hell, while tripping over tree roots and their own feet alike. Hunk had always thought that he would live a peaceful life, surrounded by nameless faces in an obscure and lonely town. As dull as that sounded, he much preferred that option to the slippery slope to a sudden death while lost in the woods.

Speaking of slippery slopes-

Lance gave out a yell to his right as they both tumbled face first down a muddy hill, landing gracelessly at the bottom. Their charge, who they had previously carried between them, was flung from their grip and rolled to a halt a few feet ahead of them. Now, Hunk might be scared of a premature demise at the hands and obstacles of Mother Nature, but he was so not willing to experience it at the hands of Keith. He scrambled to his feet, hauling a screeching Lance after him, to pick up Shiro once more before Keith found out that  _they had fucking dropped him_. Keith was even more terrifying in person than Hunk had ever imagined, and it had nothing to do with the rumours about him.

(Okay, so that was a sort of half-truth, but Hunk had more pressing concerns than being completely honest to himself. Like, ya know,  _not dying_.)

That fear spurred him on, kept him going until he heard shouts from behind him. He dared a glance behind him just in time to see a police officer fall in the undergrowth, no doubt caused by Keith. Sure enough, a slim figure darted across his peripheral vision away from the commotion caused by the small team of policemen chasing them down.

Hunk heaved a huge sigh of relief when they stopped pursuing them, having lost too many officers throughout the woods to Keith’s various traps and tricks. His relief was shortlived however when he realised that Keith had probably seen them drop Shiro, and that he would more than likely kill them both. Hunk felt guilty for being a itty bit grateful that Lance would probably go first, meaning that Hunk would at least know what to expect when his turn to face Keith’s wrath came.

They finally came to a halt at the edge of the woods, near where they had first entered the foreboding forest. He heard Pidge let out a happy shout in the distance, and quickly made his way over to the small pickup truck that Keith had described to them as their getaway car. They found Pidge hiding in the back, covering his mouth with his hands with embarassment as he realised that he could’ve given their position away to any cops lurking nearby. Quickly and quietly, the three of them carefully tried to deposit Shiro into the back with Pidge. Just as Lance and Hunk had scrambled into the truck beside them, Keith burst out of the forest, sprinting like a madman towards them.

If Hunk screamed a little, no one would blame him. Keith looked positively ready to throttle them.

Which is why Hunk was surprised when he chose to rip the door on the driver’s side open rather than confront the duo who were quaking in the back (Lance would deny it later, Hunk knew). The surprise was increased tenfold until it speedballed into terror as Keith yanked the steering wheel sharply while pressing the pedal to the floor. In his haste to grab on to something,  _anything_  that would stop him from being hurtled out of the car sideways at 90 miles per hour, he forgot about the man that they had been assigned to protect. He didn’t need to worry too much as Pidge had latched onto Shiro, probably to use him as a weight to keep them both from falling overboard. Hunk made a mental note to thank him later.

Much, much later, after they had gotten far away from their livid chauffeur.

* * *

  
A couple of hours later, after the road had long turned to dust and rubble, they pulled up to a small shack in the middle of nowhere. The truck’s poor door slammed shut so hard that the whole vehicle rocked violently from side to side. Hunk barely had a second to register Keith’s hands grabbing Shiro from Pidge’s arms, pulling him over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold.

“Inside,  _now_ ,” he hissed between gritted teeth.

The trio hurried to comply, despite their collective fear that they would be mauled as soon as they stepped through the front door. It was far better than being stuck outside in the freezing cold with no one else around for miles, and Hunk didn’t particularly fancy a long and directionless trek home.

As soon as Keith had gently settled Shiro on the sofa bed, he whipped around to face them and angrily stabbed a thumb in the direction of the next room over. Closing the door quietly, Keith kept his voice dangerously low as he reprimanded them.

“I can’t believe you  _dropped_  him.”

Hunk swallowed his fear and embraced the cold arms of death.

“I told you to be careful with him! You could’ve gotten us all caught with a mistake like that!”

“Well, sorry that we dared to help you, mullet,” Lance growled back. “It was so damn obvious that you were doing just peachy on your own, huh?”

Oh God, this was it, this was the end, Lance just had to open his stupidly stubborn mouth-

Keith’s shoulders slumped a little, and he tiredly rested his head back against the door in defeat. He looked apologetic, ashamed even, as he fiddled with his fingerless gloves.

“Sorry, it’s just… I-I thought that Shiro was gone for good, and finding him strapped to a hospital bed after a whole year missing has made me a little,” he paused, looking for the right word, “emotional.”

He still didn’t look convinced by his own word choice, and even Hunk thought it was underwhelmingly descriptive. Much unlike Lance though, he knew when to bite his tongue and hold his thoughts. Keith pulled himself together, his shoulders a little higher, and closed the gap between them. He raised his hand to each of them for a weirdly formal yet sheepish handshake.

“Let’s start over. I’m Keith, and thank you for helping me save Shiro.”

Hunk grinned as he accepted the handshake, grateful that he would live another day. He was a little concerned by just how tiny Keith’s hand seemed in his own, but shoved the feeling aside quickly when he remembered how speedy they were with projectiles. He hoped that the police officers would only suffer a concussion at worst.

“Hey, I’m Hunk, and I find you mildly terrifying but pretty cool at the same time. Thanks for stopping the police from catching us, I guess?”

_And for not killing us_ , he added mentally.

Lance was up next, squeezing Keith’s hand just a little bit too hard. Keith, to his credit, kept his face straight.

“The name’s Lance, and thanks for nothing- I totally could have saved Shiro on my own.”

Keith snorted, much to Lance’s chagrin, and moved swiftly down the line to Pidge.

“Pidge. And thanks for letting me keep the locking nuts from the police car tyres.”

Keith grinned, but didn’t reply. Pidge handed him back his multitool-penknife-thing at the same time as Hunk’s realisation about why none of the town’s law enforcement had followed them here.

_Holy guacamole_.

So that’s why Pidge was sent to the truck before them. Just another possible crime to add to their evergrowing list of offences. Hunk was marginally impressed at how fast they had been dragged down by Keith’s bad influence.

He found that he couldn’t quite bring himself to be upset by that, not once the door creaked open and Shiro’s face peeked around it, his bleary eyed gaze falling on the group. Not once Shiro’s stare settled on Keith, and his eyes gained focus while his face brightened like the sun.

Especially not once he witnessed how Keith melted, forgetting about the three additional presences in the room as he scurried to pull Shiro into his arms.

He felt like he was intruding on a private moment, but he was thankful he got a chance to witness this much nicer and immensely preferable side to Keith. It almost made him forget about the warnings people whispered about him back home. Almost, but not quite.

Hunk let himself smile and relax for the moment, anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had an epiphany about how this story will end, and it's painful and full of difficult decisions and goodbyes. But the last paragraph will be so damn fluffy that it makes it worth it, trust me.
> 
> Or don't. It still a lot of suffering for everyone either way.

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s the first chapter of my Paranormal Voltron AU! The story uses he/him pronouns for Pidge at first, but that changes later on. It’s also not incredibly Sheith-y in this chapter, but that’s because they’re only talked about for now. Next chapter will mark their physical appearances in the story!
> 
> Originally posted on my tumblr, same name as here!


End file.
